The successful applicant will use AI tools like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion for “asset creation,” post-processing, and training AI models for use in game library creation.
While some studios disavow gen AI completely, or use it for early-stage concepting and placeholders, a Neowiz job listing (Google translated) for an “AI Creator,” spotted by Captain Dandyfloss on Bluesky, is explicit about using “generative AI technology to maximize the efficiency of the art production process and innovate the visual quality of games.”
The listing says Neowiz is “developing games of various genres and platforms to bring new surprises and enjoyment that have never existed before,” and in a statement provided to PC Gamer, the studio clarified that the AI Creator will not be “directly involved” in the development of the Lies of P sequel.
““The job posting in question is not a role that will be directly involved in the production of the Lies of P sequel. Instead, they will reside within an independent Art R&D team at ROUND8,” Neowiz said. "GenAI tools are only used in preliminary stage work to improve efficiency of repetitive, foundational tasks.
"AI-generated visuals function strictly as internal reference material during pre-production, a method for establishing visual direction before formal production begins. The intent is to build a proprietary visual library trained exclusively on assets for which Neowiz and ROUND8 hold full legal rights. All final assets for the upcoming game will be created by experienced artists.”
Without the added context of using AI for the drafting and concept phase, this would have sounded bleak for the studio and the sequel. However, hearing that they’d keep it internal and trained solely on their own artists’ works, I’m not sure there’s too much to oppose to this. If this is used to automate repetitive tasks to put resources into other, more relevant and meaningful tasks, and as long as artists don’t lose their jobs, this should be fine, right?
I don’t know, art in general is not a place I want AI. And it being concept art doesn’t really make it any better, if anything it makes it worse. I want to interface with ideas and concepts from other humans, not slop spat out by Midjourney. Human-to-human communication of ideas and emotions is like… the whole point of art.
I would argue it makes it worse since the most important part about art is the concept being pursued or expressed by the art that is brought into life by its aesthetics. I am not making a hard distinction between concept and aesthetics here, I am saying fundamentally art is about a series of aesthetics cohering into concepts. The concept does not have to be intellectual, or literal, or anything really but to say that the conceptual stage of creating a universe is somehow not the vital genesis point where the artist should not only be spending most of their time but be most motivated and impassioned by (otherwise why flesh the idea out?) is absurd.
A vision isn’t simply an aesthetic, it is a concept. Bringing reality to a vision is a conversation between an aesthetic suggesting a concept in your mind, and your mind actuating it into an aesthetic imperfectly and then further responding emotionally and intellectually to that experience. A work of art starts as concept art, then becomes aesthetics and then concept again, endlessly on like a bouncey ball down an infinite stairwell through the medium of the artist. How this all begins is of course deeply important to the life of the resulting work of art.
To put it another way, think of your favorite artist and imagine what part of their artistic process you would be most interested in peeking into to get a window into their creative mind. It would be the part where a beautiful idea starts right? The part where the fashion designer catches a whim floating by and sketches it upon a paper and there it is, a style and outfit… something more than seemed possible was pulled straight out of a single moment… THAT is the part “artists” want to replace with AI? What the fuck?
Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to overly romanticize how beautiful works of art begin, often they begin by starting in a hamfisted, backwards way or even just a mundane way and finding their way along anyways but my point is that focusing on trying to automate the process of concept art is a sort of perverse romanticization of the artistic process. Part of the point of art to me is the “boringness” of that generative beginning where all that you can really give is your presence and ability to listen to how those initial marks you have made make you feel. There is no skipping that part for the grandiose, flashy parts of making a fantasy world, I think any good artist knows that on some level.
Its worse when its “placeholders” or concept art because it defines the tone of the game as its being built